Analysis of The
Burial of Count Orgaz

One of El Greco's most beautiful religious
paintings, The Burial of Count Orgaz is a typical example of
the artist's powerful Catholic
Counter-Reformation Art, with its elongated figures and forms designed
to reveal the inner spirit. Indeed, El Greco's 'unworldly' style of Mannerist
painting remains the ideal idiom in which to express a mystical event,
and was undoubtedly a perfect match for the religious fervour of Spain.
Its dramatic quality paved the way for the emotional and even more dramatic
character of Spanish Baroque
art and the Spanish Neapolitan
School of Painting (1600-56).

Born Domenikos Theotokopoulos, in Crete,
El Greco learned icon painting before
moving to Italy where he studied Venetian
painting - the work of the ageing Titian
(c.1485-1576) but more especially that of Tintoretto
(1518-94) - as well as the Mannerist style of Jacopo
Bassano (1515-92) and the great Michelangelo
(1475-1564). Restless in Rome, El Greco moved to the Spanish capital Madrid,
eventually settling in the city of Toledo - at the time, the religious
centre of Spain - where he remained for the rest of his life. This particular
painting was inspired by a 14th
century legend concerning events which occurred in 1323 during the burial
of a devout local nobleman, Don Gonzalo de Ruiz, known as the Count of
Orgaz.

According to local legend, the funeral
of the Count of Orgaz had some unexpected guests: namely, Saint Stephen
and Saint Augustine, who appeared suddenly and miraculously to help lower
the count's body into his tomb. The honour of having saints attend his
funeral was in recognition of the count's pious life as well as his extreme
generosity Toledo's religious institutions. In any event, the count had
stipulated in his will that a yearly donation be collected from the citizens
of Orgaz, a small town outside Toledo in his seigniorial possession, and
be given to the parish church of Santo Tome in Toledo. The count was a
parishioner of that church and had his private chapel there. However in
1562 the citizens of the town decided to stop making the payment, hoping
the bequest would be forgotten. They could not have been more mistaken.
The parish priest of Santo Tome, Andrez Nunez de Madrid, immediately instigated
legal proceedings against the town and in 1569 the royal chancellery in
Valladolid ruled in the priest's favour.

To celebrate this legal victory, as well
as to immortalize the Count's generosity, Nunez renovated the count's
chapel and commissioned El Greco to paint an exceptionally large altarpiece
for it. The contract that El Greco signed on 18 March 1586 included among
its clauses a description of the subject: "The artist agrees to paint
the scene which depicts the parish priest and other clerics reciting the
office for the burial of Don Gonzalo de Ruiz, Count of Orgaz, when Saint
Augustine and Saint Stephen descended from heaven to bury the body of
this gentleman, one holding the head, the other the feet, and placing
him in the sepulchre. Around the scene should be portrayed many observers
and, above all this, there is to be an open sky showing heaven in glory."

El Greco followed these specifications
very closely. He divided the painting into two equal parts: the world
of mortals in the lower half and the celestial vision above. He set the
funeral scene at night, as was increasingly fashionable for funerals of
the nobility in 16th-century Spain. Mortuary torches have been lit and
a solemn gathering of men has formed around the miracle. One can almost
hear the whispering between a Franciscan friar and an Augustinian friar
on the left. Saints Stephen and Augustine, young and old, clean-shaven
and bearded, are dressed in richly embroidered liturgical vestments. (A
the bottom of Stephen's vestment is a scene portraying his death as a
martyr by stoning - a deliberate reminder of the importance of martyrdom.)
They solemnly hold the count's body, clad in shining armour, the textures
of their fabrics contrasting evocatively with the metallic polish of the
steel. Seen close up, El Greco's brushwork is spirited and descriptive
- Saint Stephen's reflection can be seen in the armour.

In addition, El Greco sets the scene in
Toledo of the 1580s: the black garments, white ruffs and goatee beards
belong to the fashionable attire of late 16th-century Spain and not the
14th century in which Orgaz died. Each individual appears to be a real
portrait, and some of the figures are members of the military Order of
Santiago, identifiable by the red crosses on their chests. Although their
identities are largely uncertain, the priest on the right holding a book
and reciting the funeral rites must be Nunez de Madrid. The man with a
white beard, behind Saint Augustine, is Antonio de Covarrubias, a scholar
fluent in Greek and a close friend of El Greco, who would also paint his
portrait years later. El Greco may be identified as the figure looking
directly at us, positioned above Saint Stephen's head. And the young boy
looking out at us and pointing to Orgaz's body is El Greco's son, Jorge
Manuel. He is there not only to lead us into the picture but to emphasize
El Greco's role as the creator of the composition.

NOTE: El Greco's portraits of the most
eminent figures in Toledan society makes The Burial of Count Orgaz
one of the greatest portrait
paintings of the late 16th century. It was also a means of emphasizing
the continuing relevance of devout behaviour as well as satisfying the
vanity of the artist's colleagues and peers.

As mentioned above, El Greco first trained
as a painter of icons, a form of Byzantine
art favoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Rather than representing
natural phenomena as perceived by the senses, icons are designed to give
a glimpse into the transcendental world of the divine. Figures are typically
two-dimensional, elongated and uniform in size and proportion. One of
El Greco's earliest signed icons is the Dormition of the Virgin
- discovered in 1982 in a monastery on the Greek island of Syros - which
shows the mother of Christ 'asleep' surrounded by the apostles. Christ
has miraculously appeared and takes her soul in the form of a swaddled
baby in his hands. Above, the heavens have opened, the Holy Spirit appears
and the Virgin sits enthroned as she is assumed into heaven.

The visual links between this icon and
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz are intriguing. It is as if El
Greco were consciously referring back to his earlier work but inserting
a newly acquired skill: that of being able to paint the natural world
realistically. On the one hand, we are drawn into the composition by the
realism of the black-clad men gathered around the count; yet, on the other,
we are witnessing both a miracle and a celestial vision. In order to depict
the men, El Greco draws on the examples of Titian and Tintoretto whose
works - like the latter's Assumption
of the Virgin (1516-18) - he had studied while in Venice. But
to capture the abstract visual world of paradise, El Greco has resorted
to his training as an icon painter. The medley of elongated figures in
heaven, dressed in brightly coloured drapery as if lit by neon lights,
are not so removed from the figures that appear in his icon. El Greco
also introduces an element of hierarchy, favoured by the Orthodox Church:
Christ sits at the top, surrounded by the saints in heaven; Saint Peter
with the keys and the rest of the saints sit behind in tiers, as though
at the theatre. But the most moving detail is just visible through a gap
in the clouds - it is a small translucent figure, which the Virgin and
Saint John plead to have admitted into heaven. That figure signifies the
Count of Orgaz's immaterial and immortal soul.

Other important influences on El Greco's
handling of the composition are also detectable. The relatively uniform
arrangement of figures in the lower half is reminiscent of Gothic
art, such as the Sienese
School of painting of the 14th century. However, the simple but easily
understood hand gestures suggest the influence of the Italian High
Renaissance (1490-1530). In the upper half of the picture, the slightly
distorted ghostly figures evoke the works of Tintoretto at the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco, as also do the broken highlights on the drapery.
The mainly 'acid colours' recall the colour schemes of Jacopo Bassano.
In all, a masterpiece of Spanish
painting as well as a magisterial illustration of Christian faith.
Compare also the Mannerist forms of Parmigianino in works like: Madonna
With the Long Neck (1535, Uffizi, Florence).